Macedonia's Ruling Party Leads Opinion Poll

The poll shows that 29 per cent of respondents would vote for the VMRO DPMNE if elections were held right now. Only 12 percent would cast their vote for the main opposition party, the Social Democrats, SDSM, according to the survey.

The previous poll conducted by the Washington D.C.-based IRI, which was carried out in December last year, showed that VMRO DPMNE would get 30 percent of the vote while support for the SDSM remained unchanged.

The ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration, which is the junior government party, was third in the latest IRI poll, receiving endorsement by 8 per cent of respondents.

The main ethnic Albanian opposition party, the Democratic Party of Albanians, got 4 per cent while one percent of respondents would cast their vote for the other ethnic Albanian opposition party, the New Democracy, ND.

A bulk of the respondents, 89 per cent, said they are in favor of their country joining NATO, while 92 per cent would like to join the EU.

The opinion poll was conducted from May 17-24.